Conjure
EVENT
Play this card to look through your Endurance for any Object. Put that Object directly into play. Reshuffle
your Endurance.
Well, the long-awaited "official" version of this card comes to light, with its release in The Gathering
edition. So what does it do, and how well does it do it?
But first, game mechanic questions. Currently, the ruling appears to be that if you use Conjure (or Alex
Johnson) to put an Object directly into play, you are still considered to be playing it. Thus, it is subject
to the delayed discard-to-use rule.
So if you play Conjure to recover an Extra Weapon or The Equalizer, you still have to wait until your opponent has
a chance to play one card before discarding to use it.
You have to be able to legally play the card when you play Conjure. This is important in the case of Darius.
Conjure is therefore useless if you wish to play a Darius-added Object in your deck (typically Hogg, but
Flying Machine/Wings as well). Why? You are still required to play Darius when you play the Object, which
you can't do if you play Conjure, your (typically) one Special for the turn.
Since Corda and Reno can't legally play Objects when Grounded is out, they can't play Conjure in this case
either.
You can play Conjure even if you do not have any Objects in your Endurance.
I'm not clear at this time if it is now legal to play the early, illegal version of Conjure. There is no
difference in text between the two versions, so the older version would now seem legal.
So that's it for Conjure and how it works. What can you do with it?
To a great degree, Conjure is the opposite-yet-equivalent of Alex Johnson (CotW #49). Alex recovers from your
discard pile - Conjure from your Endurance. Between these two cards, you've pretty much covered Object
recovery. If it ain't in your hand, one of these two cards will let you grab it (unless Kane "borrowed" it, of
course).
The advantage Conjure has over Alex Johnson is speed. If you start with one in your hand, you can play it and put
that Object right into play. If it's not a discard-to-use Object, you can use it right away. Thus, Annie
Devlin could play Conjure, put Parrying Blade into play, and then immediately use her Master's Attack to block any
blockable attack played against her.
Like Master's Domain (CotW #28, not the Seinfeld version), Conjure essentially means you have an extra
copy of a particular Object in your deck. This may not mean much when it comes to Quality Blade: you can only
have one in play, and it is unrestricted. However, when it comes to Restricted cards like Ancestral Blade,
Parrying Blade, Hogg, The Equalizer, Flying Machine, and Armor, having "extra" copies can be quite useful.
Conjure is also a bit more flexible than actually having an extra copy. Thus, Khan could play Conjure to recover
Breastplate. If he already has a Breastplate, then he can use Conjure to grab a Helmet. If he has both, he can
grab an Ancestral Blade or Greaves.
As we noted with Alex Johnson, eventually you're going to have more cards in your discard pile than your Endurance.
And there's lots of things that help to make your discard pile larger (Desert, Counterfeit, Dirty Trick/Pummel,
Improvised Weapon/Attack). Also, some Objects such as The Equalizer and Extra Weapon are discard-to-use, so you
yourself are going to put them in your discard pile. And finally, your opponent is going to be Misfortuning your
cards. So Conjure is hardly going to make Alex Johnson obsolete.
In fact, Alex Johnson is probably a better choice overall. However, that doesn't mean Conjure doesn't have
its place. It essentially counts as an extra "copy." Use Conjure to get your copy into play faster, than Alex
Johnson to put it back into play when it is removed.
I usually prefer a 3-to-2 mix of Alex Johnsons to Conjures, since Misfortune is becoming a bit more popular
since Hogg (and now Flying Machine/Wings) was released. You could probably get by with even less, however,
depending on your deck size. In a lean and mean deck, I'd go as low as 3-to-1 if there are important cards like
Hogg or FM/Wings I want to get into play and keep in play.
So who should use Conjure? Anybody who uses Objects, obviously. The Personas here are Khan, Kern, the Kurgan,
Richie, and Corda and Reno.
Khan's use for Conjure is self-evident. Conjure, Armor. Armor, Conjure. Enjoy.
Even with recent errata, Hogg is far too useful to be restricted to two. Use Conjure to get the second one
down and immediately Exert to avoid a major attack. You might lose a couple of points of Ability after your
opponent Misfortunes it the first two times you play it. But then use Alex Johnson to get it back into play a
third time. The Ability loss is still better than being pounded by a Seduced Power Blow.
Kern decks tend to be larger, to support Exerting. Conjure lets Kern grab Hogg and Bowie Knife that much
quicker.
Despite Grounded, (who uses Nemesis cards?), Corda and Reno will undoubtedly want to use Conjure. Get that
Flying Machine/Wings out early. Use a previously-played Equalizer and play Conjure to grab a new one out the same
turn, to use next turn. It's a cheesy strategy, but one that will chew up the low-agility Immortals.
Thanks to a new Object, the Kurgan can also use Conjure. Skull Helmet lets the big guy set up an attack without
having to worry about pesky opponents forcing him to block to awkward locations and mess up his counterattack.
If Richie uses Conjure to grab a Flying Machine/Wings or Hogg, that's one less card he needs to waste using his
Luck on.
Another Persona, one without Persona-specific Objects, who seriously needs Conjure is Amanda. Ancestral Blade
remains a better choice for her than Continuity. All she needs to do is get it out faster and keep it in play.
Conjure helps her to grab it quicker, while Security Guard/Object lets her keep it out and Alex Johnson puts
it back into play.
Other Personas who lack the "standard" Power Block Continuity might also want Conjure to get Ancestral Blade
quickly. This currently includes Kane, Kalas, Xavier, Katana, Annie and Fitzcairn.
So overall, Steve gives Conjure a _8_. As more Objects are added into the game this card will continue to grow
in usefulness. It's a useful component for making larger decks more competitive, since otherwise Restricted
Objects tend to get lost in the shuffle.
What Our Other Raters Say:
Jeff - An extremely nice card for those decks that rely on heavily-restricted Objects (Ancestral Blade, Hogg, The
Equalizer, etc.). Couple it with Alex Johnson/Archaic Collection to show why Thief should have been left
unerrata'd -- because objects are the easiest Specials in the game to get into play and recover.
Hank - Since everyone's playing with Hogg nowadays, and Ancestral Blade has been limited to one/deck, Conjure and
Alex Johnson work together to make it quicker to get to your Objects and harder to keep them gone. I like
Conjure, and I'm glad it's back.
Alan - Finally! A card which will prove useful to any and all decks that use and/or rely on Objects.
Effectively increases the number of a particular Objects you have in your deck by up to six.
Jim - A wonderful card for Object heavy decks. A definite must-have for Khan decks and it will certainly
enhance Corda and Reno decks. Mix well with Alex Johnson and Archaic Collection and you can get your Objects out
quickly and keep them in play. Conjure can also be very useful in Kern decks. Conjure probably should have been
a card reserved to Nakano (and perhaps Kane), but I guess everyone in the Highlander mythos has a "kind of magic".
Prodipto - Conjure is most useful for Khan and Kern and, in fact, my decks will definitely include them. It's a
great way to get a restricted Object into play quickly. Of course any Object-heavy deck could use Conjure. Being
able to put a Parrying Blade into play more readily is a great asset. Overall, a very playable card.
Allen - Conjure is a very straightforward card that works well with decks that need an object in play. It's the
perfect complimentary card to Alex Johnson since it gets cards out of your deck rather than your discard. You can
also use it after Archaic Collection to help you get those recovered objects more quickly. But mass object
removal just got a lot harder with the new reprint/errata of Thief, so you're probably still better off with Alex.
Get the Objects you need, then keep them in play. Conjure will see use for some time to come. And it's
finally legal!
Bruce - Before it was banned, this was one of my favorite cards. It is very hard to not include this in an Object-
heavy deck or in decks that rely on an Object with a low restriction.
Ratings Overall:
Steve 8
Jeff 6
Hank 7
Alan 8
Jim 6
Prodipto 7
Allen 7
Bruce 7
Average: 7.00
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